Fresh from the desk: Biker chic

The hills are rumbling with the sound of Harleys.  It's that time of year again and for the next few weeks all the little towns throughout the Hills will be swarming with bikers on their vacations.  Of course, I hope to get in on the action a little. ;)  However, that means I need to gear a few pieces towards them, without looking like everything else they can find at any gift shop anywhere in the area.  Behind the leather and spikes they're all just normal people, dentists and such, so maybe I shouldn't worry about it too much, but there are specific styles and motifs that biker style tends to gravitate to.  Namely, chunky silver chains and skulls (the more skulls the better lol) mostly in black, silver, gunmetal, red, orange.  A lot of them go for the more tribal look with leather, bone beads, feathers, teeth, claws, etc.  Problem is, all of those things are all over every store in the area, so how to make mine different?

My plan, if you can call it a plan, is to stay with the same style sensibility I am used to working in but use the darker colors and keep everything on the masculine side with just a touch of femininity.  The fire agate hemp necklace I made last week should do well.  Last night I made this one, with a carved bone pendant, leopard jasper, rose quartz, and hematite strung with black seed beads and gunmetal silver bugle beads, with the metal-free closure I had basically abandoned for too long just for the ease of using a toggle clasp.  It's strong, a little tough, a little frilly, hypoallergenic, and I hope it bridges the gap a little bit.  If nothing else, I like it a lot!

 This one was simple enough.  Carved bone pendant in the shape of an acorn, hematite beads, red horn beads, black and white bone beads, and glass  beads with a slightly greenish mottled finish on sterling silver memory wire.  The acorn came in the same package as the other black bone pendant above, so I guess we'll see if anyone is interested in that one at the show.  I have other pendants I can switch out, or just leave the pendant out entirely.  We'll see how it goes.  As the evening goes on, I'm toying with the idea of switching it out for the other that was in that package, which is carved to look sort of like a claw.  Maybe I should do that, it would probably appeal to more people than the acorn does.

One more on memory wire.  I'm not sure what the stones are exactly, but the large center stone is dyed turquoise with goldish veins throughout.  The silver spacers jangle a little on the sterling silver memory wire and the white stone chips have grey veins throughout.  This one is definitely something I'd wear regularly, but it's not overly girly.  It's a simple but slightly chunky light statement piece that should make people take notice without being too loud.  I just wish I knew what the stones were... people do ask about that.

I'll make more tonight to get ready for another Saturday sale tomorrow.  Have a great weekend everyone, and enjoy the Rally if you're headed North!

*UPDATE*  I did end up reworking the acorn necklace with the carved bone claw and replaced the seed beads with all hematite beads.  Much better, yes?

Fresh from the desk: Ideas for Fall/Winter designs!

I've been doing a little bit of trend research for Fall/Winter jewelry and I've got some ideas.  Several of the trends are just horrid, I think... like the chunky neon chain thing... bleh.  I won't make anything like that, I'm sorry.  I try to use as little metal as possible most of the time and that would be entirely counterproductive.  I saw a crochet pattern for large chain links that could be strung together, but I didn't like the look of that either.  I'll stick with what I know.

There are a few things that did sound good though: Mixed media is huge.  Wood and pearls on leather with a ribbon, braided denim cuffs, feathers, you name it.  That's very good news for me considering the materials I like to use.  Stacked bangle bracelets and cuffs are big too, and while I can't do the metalworking to make bangles I can figure out how to crochet cuffs with beads.  I have a couple of patterns I'm playing around with to get that to work.  Statement necklaces are still in, and while some of them are gawdy, that still leaves me with plenty of room to experiment.  My statement pieces usually end up smaller than what's on the runway anyway, just because I know so few people who would actually buy something like that, but it does mean I can still use color.  While I work on crocheting cuff bracelets, I'll work on crochet chokers as well.  Vintage-made-new is something I should look into... maybe a couple trips to some local flea markets are in order.

Clothing trends are surprisingly bland.  Lots of colorblocks, mostly with variations of beige, with occasionally something in red.  Runway fashion makes me crazy... so little of it is actually wearable.  A lot of it reminded me of a large taupe square paper sack that even makes the model look stupid.

This next batch of jewelry I'm working on is for the Sturgis Rally that's coming up.  Soon, the Hills will be swarming with motorcycles and they will definitely be around town at the next Saturday show, so I have some ideas for biker-chic pieces to cater to that crowd.

We'll see how this one does... It has a fire agate center donut, hematite, bone, horn, and glass beads, strung on hemp 20" long when tied.  The differing textures of all the beads didn't quite come through, but Mom took the good camera with her to Cleveland so this is what I'm stuck with.  Oh well. 

The heat has finally lifted a little.  Finally, opening my windows lets in the cool evening air like usual!  That hasn't been the case this last week or so.  Hope you're all staying cool and hydrated!

Fresh from the desk: New chain stitch

I'm tired of only using daisy chain and seed-bugle-seed-bugle all in a row.  Those stitches are fine when appropriate, but I'm bored with only having those two options if I'm trying to keep production time down.  I know there are much nicer/fancier stitches out there, but they're so time-consuming that I'd need to raise my prices and I'm not willing to go there just yet.

However, I did come across this one that takes more time than a daisy chain but not near as much as a spiral rope.  It's a little hard to tell with this resolution, but it's a flat chain of small squares with a contrasting color in each corner.  I had redone necklaces with the butterfly pendant a couple of times already.  It's so large that nothing else I tried laid right, but I think the contrast of the frilly butterfly and the square chain with hematite balances the whole piece nicely.  A daisy chain was too much fluff for the pendant and a plain bugle strand was too bland, but this works nicely.

This one is choker-length with navy blue delicas beads and mint green seed beads for contrast.  The squares in the chain echo the geometrics on the ceramic pendant and the green shell discs tie it all together.  I love this little choker and I'll definitely make some more to sell in various places so I can keep one for myself!

All in all, this stitch takes a bit longer than the others but it's useful in ways they lack.  I'm looking at trends for the Fall so I'm sure I'll be able to work this one in more.  I'm also working on some crochet jewelry, so once I have something to show there I'll definitely blog it.  I have an idea for a lace choker with an amethyst nugget front and center... maybe I'll work on that one tonight!